Preparing a meal for my family resembles orchestrating a small dinner party. Surprisingly, having an additional guest at the table inspires and motivates me to get busy. What's another setting?
My brother-in-law joined us for this meal and it came together rather elegantly without actually being too complicated to prepare. I could easily scale this meal up to serve an even larger party without much additional effort.
The menu featured a selection of seasonal dishes and family favorites, each prepared with as many local ingredients as possible. We started with a simple Caesar salad and homemade brown butter and sage dinner rolls.
For the main course, I decided on an apple cider pork shoulder, seared to perfection and braised with aromatic herbs and spices. Accompanying the dish were creamy mashed potatoes and charred shishito peppers from the garden, providing a delightful contrast of bite and texture.
We dined al fresco at Lyra’s request, and the meal was consumed with remarkable speed. For dessert, I indulgently prepared a batch of brown butter maple blondies to satisfy my desire for a warm and sweet, yet savory treat—but definitely not a pumpkin-flavored option just yet. They exceeded my expectations.
Keep reading for how I got everything to the table in a timely fashion while wrangling four children underfoot.
When building and designing a menu, I have come to appreciate the necessity of balancing straightforward, familiar recipes with more innovative and complex ones. When catering for a large gathering, experimenting with multiple new recipes that involve intricate and unfamiliar techniques can be overwhelming. If I intend to serve several courses, it is impractical to invest considerable energy in mastering a new recipe while simultaneously coordinating the timing of all other dishes I am preparing.
If you even dare suggest practicing beforehand, don’t bother. I’m a folk measure and one and done kind of gal. I don’t have time or patience to practice recipes in advance. I try it and if we like it we make it again. That’s how we practice, live and direct. I may practice decorating a cake, here and there but at home, I’m almost always going to wing it.
With that in mind, preparing a caesar salad, mashed potatoes and roasted peppers has become almost second nature for me and by braising the pork shoulder I was able to channel my energy into prepping and proofing the dinner rolls and mixing the batter for dessert. Here’s how my timeline shook out:
At 10:00 AM, I started by preparing the pork shoulder. This involved trimming any excess fat, seasoning it generously with salt, pepper, and a blend of aromatic herbs, then searing it in a hot pan to lock in the flavors. Once the shoulder was beautifully browned, I transferred it to a Dutch oven, added apple cider, apples, onions, and a few sprigs of thyme and rosemary, and set it to braise slowly in the oven.
Around 10:30 AM, I paused to put Lily down for her morning nap and set Lyra up with a craft in the kitchen while the boys finished up their independent homeschool studies.
By 11:00 AM, I had moved on to the dinner rolls. Browning butter, measuring ingredients and mixing the dough before kneading and proofing. While the dough was rising, I took the time to chop and prepare the vegetables for the salad and side dishes. My oldest, DJ, loves to bake and assisted with preparing the dough.
Lily woke around 11:30 AM and she and Lyra played underfoot and in the playroom while the boys helped in the kitchen.
Around noon, the dough had risen sufficiently, so I shaped it into rolls and set them aside for a second proof. This gave us a perfect window to start on the mashed potatoes. Emmett peeled and chopped, and then we set them to boil, ensuring they would be ready to mash with butter and cream later.
For lunch, we munched on raw veggies and apples that we chopped while the dough was rising, cheese, grapes and nuts.
By 1:00 PM, the potatoes were cooked, mashed and set aside. I covered them and kept them warm, ready to be served later. The boys were tasked with tidying up the kitchen from lunch, emptying the dishwasher and setting the table while I put Lyra down for her afternoon nap. They took turns helping Lily while I was upstairs.
At 2:00 PM, I turned my attention to the dessert. The brown butter maple blondies required careful attention to the browning of the butter, ensuring it achieved a nutty aroma without burning. The boys retreated to the backyard and driveway to play and while Lyra napped, Lily and I baked. Once the butter was ready, I mixed it with the rest of the ingredients and poured the batter into a prepared pan.
While the blondies baked, Lily and I built with blocks, colored with crayons and played with a hunk of dough leftover from shaping until Lyra woke up.
By 3:00 PM, the dinner rolls had finished their second proof and were ready for the oven. I brushed them with a mixture of butter and sage, then placed them in to bake until golden brown. The girls diligently watched them puff up and bake. Lyra and I prepared a pitcher of freshly brewed iced tea.
At 4:00 PM, The rolls were ready, and I set them aside to cool. To cope with the drama of the toddler witching hour, I sampled one of the rolls AND a blondie. My husband, Matthew, returned home and he took over engaging with the kids while I tied up my loose ends and refreshed myself.
By 5:00 PM, I began the final assembly. The pork shoulder was perfectly braised, tender, and flavorful. I pulled it from the oven and let it rest while I charred the shishito peppers on the stovetop burner, bringing out their natural sweetness and slight smokiness. I tossed the Caesar salad with its creamy dressing and grated Parmesan, fluffed the mashed potatoes, and lastly, plated the shishito peppers.
Finally, at 6:00 PM, with the table set and the food ready, we gathered outside to enjoy the fruits of our labor. The family, including my brother-in-law, complimented the meal, savoring each bite of the tender pork shoulder, the creamy potatoes, and the delightful crunch of the peppers. The dinner rolls were a hit, their buttery, sage-infused flavor pairing perfectly with the rest of the dishes. And the brown butter maple blondies? They disappeared in no time, leaving everyone satisfied and content.
The thyme, rosemary and shishito peppers were homegrown in our garden. The apples were picked from Robson Farms in Columbus, NJ and the apple cider from Terhune Orchards in Princeton, NJ. Salad greens, potatoes and the shoulder of pork were purchased from various farms at our local farmers market.
Despite the occasional chaos of managing a bustling kitchen and four lively children, the meal came together mostly seamlessly, a testament to the joy and fulfillment that comes from cooking for loved ones.